


An Early Day At Work

by Shugarplumps



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: But I do love this ship too, F/M, this is a gift
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-26 19:51:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7587652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shugarplumps/pseuds/Shugarplumps
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Working at a café isn't the most interesting job, but Ryouma certainly met an interesting girl while doing it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Topped With Whipped Cream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Negativekun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Negativekun/gifts).



> This is written for Moeblob on tumblr. Check 'em out, I'm already in love with the blog!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The coffee shoppe didn't run itself, but it's staff was a bit strange.

It was early in the morning when Ryouma pushed open the door to the café with his shoulder, stepping inside the empty shoppe. Using the hand that held the keys to the store, he flicked the overhead lamps on, causing light to shine onto the colored, plastic tables that littered the front of the store. Similar plastic chairs set around them, and he pushed a stray chair under its meant table before letting the door close behind him with the light sound of a bell.

It was his turn to open shop today, and that was fine. Opening shop mostly meant turning on the machines and cleaning the counter and the tables - preparing for the day ahead at the café. Nothing that was difficult, it simply meant arriving earlier then he usually would. 

Plucking the black hair tie he held in his teeth, the older man began to put up his long, wild hair into a manageable ponytail. As he stepped behind the dark counter, Ryouma slipped into the back to grab his apron. The shoppe wasn't a very large or popular coffee shop, it was owned by a sweet guy who stopped by often and treated a lot of the workers as his friends.

Passing by the work schedule for today after tying his apron on, he saw that his boss, Silas, was due to come in today. As well as a girl named... Setsuna. Briefly, he wondered if she was new. Though, a glance further back on the schedule revealed that to be false. It seemed she'd been working here for a while, but they never had the same shift. Ryouma let out a hum of interest to himself at the situation.

He hadn't been working that long at the café, but he'd met everyone who worked there as well. Or so he thought, it seemed. Whoever this Setsuna was, he was going to to give her a proper introduction when she arrived. 

Rolling his long sleeves up his arms and up to his elbows, he began to turn on each machine that sat behind the counter, dormant from having been turned off the night before. They all turned on, filling the room with a gentle, low hum of heating water and preparing for use for the day ahead. With this as his background, Ryouma grabbed a rag and began to clean the tables for the customers.

Outside, the world was waking up. The sun filling the room with a golden shine, light warming the streets that had been cooled by the dark night before. Ryouma simply continued to clean, wiping down the counter he would stand at for the rest of his day. Then, as he put the rag back where it came from, he heard the tinkle of the bell at the door. Looking up quickly from where he was behind the counter, the glass door closed behind a girl who stepped inside.

After setting an umbrella she had with her in the stand next to the door, she looked up and met Ryouma's eyes. "Oh..." She spoke quietly, and the two seemed to quickly glance over the other. Ryouma noticed, first, her hair. It was a light blue in color, and it was styled to cover one of her eyes. The other of which looked at him, yet almost seemed clouded in her own imagination.

"...hello." She said, stepping forward. "I didn't realize we had someone new today..." Ryouma blinked, "Actually, I've been working here for about a month." He corrected her as she stepped behind the counter. "My name is Ryouma. Are you Setsuna?" He asked, and she nodded. Holding out his hand, she reached out her own with a gentle smile. "Nice to meet you..."

Setsuna stepped into the back room after that, and only returned soon after with her apron on when Ryouma was at the door, flipping the sign to open. She set some cups up by the register, and the two stood behind the counter as they waited for the first few customers to arrive.

Ryouma decided to break the silence that was being held between them, "So, Setsuna," he began, catching her attention as she glanced over to him from where she leaned against the counter, "have you been working here long?" Setsuna pondered the question. "Kinda..." After a beat of silence, followed by another, he assumed that was the only answer he was going to get.

"Well, do you like working here?" He asked, and Setsuna thought for a moment. She opened her mouth to answer, only to be interrupted by the jingle of the bell at the door, and the two of them prepared to start working instead of talk. 

As work began, it seemed the two of them didn't work that badly together. For the morning, Setsuna had worked the register and took everyone's order with a dreamy looking smile. Ryouma worked the machines, filling the orders that Setsuna told him. Together, the two of them worked through the morning of tired people heading to work that needed caffeine or people who were planning on working at the café through the morning with a cup of something to keep them going.

Only once in a while, Ryouma would have to ask Setsuna how to pronounce the name that she had written on the cup. 

"Setsuna, what does this say?" He asked, holding the cup out to her as he prepared to call out the name for whoever ordered it. The blue haired girl glanced at the styrofoam cup and smiled. "It's Mozu." She said simply, and Ryouma read over the name written there once more.

The name she'd written, however, was probably not how it was really spelt. Mowzoo. 

"You have an interesting way of spelling things." He commented, and he heard Setsuna laugh gently. "Thank you." She said, and even though it wasn't much of a compliment, Ryouma smiled back at her as he looked to the cup again. He took note of the way her letters were curled at the edges, and he thought that seemed to fit.

Setsuna seemed like the type to curl letters at the edges.

Spelling mistakes aside, it was only after the rush of the early morning had passed and the coffee shop settled down did anything eventful happen. The door opened once more, and both workers looked up to see their boss walking in with his usual grin. Then, he looked to the two workers and his expression moved to confusion. 

"You guys both have this shift?" He asked, approaching the counter. Setsuna nodded, and Ryouma spoke up. "Yes, we do. What's wrong with that? I've never had a shift with Setsuna before."

"Yeah, it's because I usually put her with Azama. I guess I messed up the schedule somewhere..." Silas said, before glancing to Setsuna. "Setsuna, you should wear your headband when you're working." He pointed out, and the blue hair girl seemed to remember that was a thing.

"Oh, yeah." She said, reaching around her neck to where a black piece of elastic was. "Sorry." Pushing the headband up, she adjusted it som the bang that was in front of her eye instead was pushed back. Of course, when Ryouma met her, he didn't question the bang where it was. Though, now that he saw her without it in her face, he wasn't sure how he felt about the change in her appearance after all morning working with her.

Silas chatted with the two of them for a while, asking how things had been going before he arrived, and the two both said it was just fine. Nothing was broken or on fire, and Silas considered that a success. Afterwards, he headed into the back, leaving the two of them to continue their work as it was.

They ended up switching the roles, with Ryouma at the register and Setsuna making the drinks. At least then most of the name on the cups were spelt closer to what the name truly was. Though, things started to pick up again around noon, and more customers arrived to the little shoppe.

Ryouma wrote another name onto the cup with the black sharpie, before he glanced next to him at Setsuna. She was putting whipped cream onto the top of someone's drink, twirling the tip around and finishing the tip with a small curl. Ryouma saw the smile that appeared on her face as she finished, the smile that lingered as she set the whipped cream to the side and continued on with the drinks.

Yet, that smile stuck with Ryouma. The look of accomplishment in her eyes that he hadn't seen her with all day. As another customer stepped up in front of him, he watched the girl behind him grab a cup from one of the coffee dispensers and rush over to the other counter. A bit spilled over the edge of the cup, hitting the floor with a barely noticeable smack.

Ryouma turned back to the customer, taking their order before he heard the sound of a rubber shoe slipping against the ground right behind him. Quickly leaping into action, he spun around, and dove down, quickly grabbing Setsuna before she could hit the ground. She blinked up at him, and he even was surprised at his own quick action.

Setsuna smiled up at him, closing her eyes as she did. "Thanks..." She told him, and Ryouma couldn't help but stare for a moment. After of which, he lifted her up, and the two of them got back to work. Ryouma turned back to the customer whose order he was taking. "I'm sorry, where were we?" He asked, clearing his throat.

The rest of the day, however, was hardly as eventful. Ryouma took his lunch break, and Setsuna hers, with Silas filling in for the missing person as the other still worked. The three of them, together, made it through the day unto the sun was starting to set in the distance. Their time for the day was up, and Silas turned the sign to closed soon after the last customer had left.

"Alright... seems the day is over." Silas said, and the two other workers nodded. Ryouma undid his hair from the ponytail, heading into the back to return his apron and gather the things he'd left there that morning. The brunette then headed out into the front, walking to the door as Setsuna cleaned the tables in the front with a rag.

"See you all soon, I assume?" He asked, and Silas waved. "See you Ryouma!" He turned to Setsuna, he looked up at him and gave him one of her sleepy smiles. "See you, Ryouma..."

He smiled back, before pushing the door open.

"Oh, wait, Ryouma." 

He turned back, finding Setsuna standing up instead of bent over cleaning the table. 

"You asked me this morning if I liked working here..." She began, and Ryouma faintly did remember asking her that. "And I do like it, though I usually work with Azama..."

Ryouma had been Azama before, and he wasn't exactly easy to explain. Why Setsuna had to work with him all the time was beyond him. Still, he was about to leave when she spoke again.

"But..."

He looked at her, finding her smiling face lit by the gold of the setting sun, shining through the window. 

"...I like working with you most."


	2. Sweet Aftertaste

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryouma does his normal shift, but his abnormal one sticks with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also no I don't have a beta and I'm half asleep when I write pretty much all my stuff if you want an explanation for why all I write sucks.

The morning was already underway when Ryouma walks into the shop. Tightening the band around his hair as he steps inside, he spots someone already behind the counter, their red apron without a single stain of the coffee around them.

"Oh, Ryouma, it seems we're working together today." She says, and Ryouma nods.

Behind the counter is his friend and sort of sister Azura, her long blue hair tied up into a messy bun on her head. Strands wiggled their way out of place and fell downwards, caressing and framing her pale face. 

"It seems so. Did you set everything up this morning, Azura?" He asked, picking his apron from the rack around the corner into the back room. He begins to tie it around himself as she nods, brushing the loose hairs behind her ear. "Yes. I think I've officially got the process of setting up, ironically, down."

"That's good to hear..." As the taller boy looked around at the room, he was reminded of the other blue haired girl he had worked with at the café. He was reminded of her half asleep smile and the way her voice lulled when she talked.

"Hey, Azura," he began, eyes still sweeping the empty café. He felt her eyes move to him. "have you ever met a girl named Setsuna?"

"Setsuna?" She repeated, thinking about the name. She tapped her fingernails against the counter as she thought, a habit he'd caught on in his time working with Azura, and finally the clicking stopped. "No." she answered at last, "I don't know any Setsunas. Why do you ask?"

Ryouma thought back to her. Thought back to Setsuna biting her tongue as she focused on making drinks next to him. Thought back to Setsuna nodding in understanding to a customer, before completely botching their name. Thought back to Setsuna waving to him as he went to break, and the same as she did. Thought back to when she slipped, and her face as she stared up at him from where she was held in his arms.

"I had a shift with her. I hadn't realized she worked here until we worked together." Ryouma answered, and Azura tapped her finger against the counter a few more times. "Hm. I've never met the girl. What is she like, if I may ask?" 

What  _was_ Setsuna like? Trying to sum up Setsuna was probably one of the most indescribable task he'd been given behind that counter. As he puzzled out the answer, silence fell between the two workers, giving an awkward pause. Azura spoke up before Ryouma did, "Is she indescribable?" She asked, and Ryouma shook his head, causing his ponytail to be tossed back and forth.

"She's perfectly describable, she's simply hard to describe in a few words." 

"Well, if you had to pick one." Azura challanged him as the door jingled, alerting them of the presence of a customer. Azura stood up straight, preparing herself to take the order of who just came in, taking the marker from where it stuck in her bun.

As the person approached, Ryouma answered. "Strange." Azura gave him a side glance, her blue eyes sparkling with confusion. "Excuse me?" She asked, and Ryouma began to roll his sleeves up. 

"Strange. Setsuna was and is strange." He paused, just a moment, but long enough to be noticeable. "...in a pretty wonderful way." 

That was the extent of their conversation for a while, as work got in the way of things. Though, it went very smoothly, with Ryouma making the drinks and calling them out while Azura took the order of each customer and put it down. Like every shft they shared, which was most, things worked fine.

Time passed. Filled with only passing faces of customers and the scent of coffee pervading over the two of them. The only interesting point was Silas arriving, giving them a wave, and heading into the back room once more. Azura hadn't gotten the chance to wave back, but Ryouma had given him a smile and a nod of recognition, his hands full with coffee cups.

When the customers in line dwindled to none, and only a few people sat at the tables and drank their coffee, Azura sighed a bit of relief. "Ryouma, may I take my break?" she asked, and the other smiled. "I'm not the one to should be asking. Go to Silas and see if he'll replace you for a while." 

They both knew that he would, but Azura went and asked politely for permission anyway.

"Alright! Time for work!" Silas smiled as he stepped out into the front, clapping his hands together. He had already expertly tied his apron on and he walked to the front, picking up the marker they used for the cups and twirled it around in his hand.

Ryouma smiled to him, and Silas smiled back. If his perpetual smile counted as smiling "back", then he certainly did. "Hello Silas, how are you today?" He asked, striking conversation as the amount of customers dived downwards, causing the rush to dull down.

"Good, good. I have to pick up some baked goods later today from the baker..." Silas answered, pursing his lips as he thought about it. Ryouma remembered the girl who they got their baked goods from after accidently running into her as she made a delivery. 

The pigtailed girl had almost dropped her box as he walked out of the café, and then started crying - or had she been yelling at him? All he remembered was a blur of running mascara and candy floss colored hair. 

Oh, and the large girl behind her who mouthed the word 'sorry' to him. Her kind smile as she carried huge boxes, her grey hair getting into her face slightly. 

That baker was certainly a strange one, he remembered deciding as he walked back home. He still stood by that decision, but he'd never run into her again after that.

"...good luck." Ryouma finally said to Silas, who nodded in admission that he'd probably need it. After that, the two of them fell into silence for a minute, and then Silas spoke up again.

"How are you Ryouma?" He asked, and Ryouma thought about it for a second. "Fine. Though, the day seems a bit uneventful... Is it just me?" He asked, and Silas smiled. "It's probably because you got a taste of what it's like working with Setsuna. She makes things interesting, doesn't she?"

"That's completely true..." He admitted, thinking. The words she'd said to him last, only a few days before, hung in his mind.

_I like working with you the most._

Her smile lingered in his mind, and he took a breath. "Speaking of Setsuna," he began, watching Silas turn to him in interest. "do you think I could have more shifts with her?" He asked, and as soon as he said it, his mind caught up with what he said. 

"You want to work with Setsuna more?" Silas repeated, and Ryouma slowly nodded. "Y-Yes... Yes, I'd like to. It just seems that... we work fine together, and she said she was bored of working with Azama all the time, so maybe a change of partner would be good for her. She would work better and that's good for you, so -"

"Hey, Ryouma, okay." Silas interrupted, an even wider grin across his face as he spoke. "Okay, yeah. I think you working with Setsuna would be great, actually. You wouldn't mind that?" 

He hadn't caught the smile on his own face as he shook his head. "Not at all, Silas. She's a fine partner." Silas let out a short laugh, before turning away and welcoming the customer that walked up to him. 

The rest of the day was nothing of interest, only his own break, some chatter with Azura, and the same girl almost petting a fake fox tail on one of the customers that walked up. He simply laughed it off, but Ryouma could tell that Azura wanted to run off and pretend that hadn't happened in the slightest. What fluffy fox tail?

And the sun went down before they expected, and shop was soon due to be closed. Silas flipped the sign closed as he waved to the final customer who left, and the three of them cleaned up the store together. Nothing took too much time to complete, and soon enough Silas was heading off to the bakery and Azura and Ryouma stood outside the closed and locked entrance.

"Well, have a good night, Azura." Ryouma said, turning as he pulled his ponytail from his hair. Though, he was stopped by a "wait!" Turning back around, he saw Azura with her hair more of a mess then when they started working, a gentle smile on her face.

"Silas told me you asked to work more with someone else..." She said, and Ryouma stood there, unsure of what to say in response. Azura's smile widened, "Is it Setsuna that you mentioned?" "Well, yes..." Ryouma answered, "but it's nothing you've done. It's just that we work with one another all the time, doesn't it just get -" he stopped, feeling her hand on his shroulder.

"It's okay." She said, and he blinked.

"You don't mind?" He asked, and she shook her head.

"It's just a bit strange, is all..." She laughed softly, "...but in a pretty wonderful way."


End file.
